I had to give my favorite little staple kitchen appliance a much-deserved funeral this week. It was quite sad, to be honest with you all. 😢

When I was very young and newly married, my now ex-husband and I had friends come over for dinner. I don’t remember what the main course was, but I remember cooking rice with it. I flat out burned the rice to a crisp on the stove. The other couple found it very funny … whereas I was mortified. He was Asian, and I was attempting to do something nice for him. Obviously, it backfired … but it was a running joke from then on. 😆

Anyway, the very next weekend, they invited us for dinner at their house … and gave us a present of a very basic rice cooker. We all laughed and they swore we’d love it. I did!!! 🙂

The brand was National, manufactured by Matsushita, which is a predecessor to Panasonic. This magic little cooker was amazing. It cooked the rice and magically turned off when it was done so I couldn’t burn 🔥 it. It was a very basic unit that worked solidly for a little over 40 years. 😱

I loved this thing. ❤️ It’s travelled with me in various moves and took a beating from children misusing it and from my very regular use. It just kept ticking. 👨🏻‍🍳

Well, it kept ticking until this week when it just wouldn’t fire up. It was tired. It wanted to return to the appliance heaven in the sky. I was devastated. 😮 Of the number of appliances that came and went in my house over the years, this one gave me way more than I bargained for. 👍🏻

It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of my family recipes, but, since I had a friend recently ask me for a copy of my turkey stuffing recipe, I figured I might as well share it here too. That way he can just get it this way … and I can pay homage to the generations before me that stuffed and roasted a turkey this way. I don’t know how far back it went, but I know that my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother all made turkey stuffing the same way. I imagine that it went further back than that, but that’s as far as I know for sure.

My only issue with providing this recipe is trying to create it in writing so that someone else can follow it. I tried very hard to measure what I do; however, since I do it with my hands by feel and by measuring it “until it looks right” … like my maternal ancestors did … it is as exact as I could make it. I used to watch my mother do it when I was little, but I never really knew precisely what to do until I was newly married to my first husband. We had moved to the Chicago area and were unable to go “home” to California for Thanksgiving. This was way before the internet and texting and email … and back when telephone calls across country cost an arm and a leg, so I wrote her a letter (you know about those, I hope … you know … with paper and a pen) and asked her how to make the stuffing. She wrote back a wonderful long letter where even she said she had trouble trying to come up with exactly what she did, but I could follow it because I understand her terms and her measurements. People outside of our family probably won’t. I kept that letter for years until it disappeared in one of my moves. I wish I still had it. It’s full of history.

Anyway, I wrote what I do on 3 X 5 index cards a while back and I still use those to remind me of certain things to do. I can’t just type it as I wrote it, though, because most people won’t know what I mean by a “glug” of this, a “handful” of that, “count to 3 while you pour” or “pour till it seems right”. I somewhat measured this year when I made my Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing so that I could give it to him as well as put it in my blog. I was so busy though, pictures never were taken … but … suffice it to say that everyone raved over my 22 ¼ pound turkey and stuffing. Maybe next time I do it, I’ll remember to take a picture … or … better yet … I’ll get Roy to take pictures … and I’ll attach it to this post. I generally can’t take pictures, because I cook with my hands so I’m generally too messy to be fooling around with a camera. Besides … Roy absolutely loves my turkey stuffing … so I’ll put him in charge next time.

So … after that long and involved “story” … here to follow is “Big Gramma’s Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing”. Is it fattening? Of course it is, but isn’t good old-fashioned tasty food generally fattening? As long as any food is eaten in moderation, it’s all good … unless there is a health issue that prevents certain things from being eaten. Just know that this is good old-fashioned American comfort food at its best. I’ll just end with this … if something doesn’t make sense in my recipe, feel free to ask in the comments. I’ll answer as best I can. It really is fairly easy and isn’t as hard as it may first look. That’s why I like it so much … because it is so easy … and tasty.

*~*~*

Big Gramma’s Corn Bread and Sausage Stuffing

Ingredients

1 batch of cornbread

1 turkey

1 bunch of celery

1 bunch of parsley

2 yellow onions

3 sticks of butter

1 lb of pork sausage

2 heaping tbsp baking powder

2-3 large eggs or 3-4 medium eggs

salt

pepper

sage

1 clean rag/cloth (not of towel/terry cloth material) that you won’t want after the fact as it will be thrown out

Instructions

Make a large pan of cornbread (the dish I use is 10 X 10) a day or two (up to about a week) early and leave out to get dry/stale.

The day before you’ll be roasting the turkey, remove the gizzard, liver, heart, neck, etc from the turkey, rinse the turkey cavities well, and boil the innards.

Put the turkey into a covered roasting pan and put it in the refrigerator until the next day.

Boil the innards for several hours until they are well cooked.

Drain the water and remove the scum. If you want to use the innards, chop up whatever is wanted and then either discard the remainder or give it to the dog and/or cat. (Personally, I only use the meat that’s on the neck and then feed the remainder to our dog.)

Add water to cover the meat (including whatever innards you may like).

Add celery tops (with leaves) from one bunch of celery (save the remainder of the celery bunch for later), a bunch of parsley, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, and 1 tsp sage to the water and meat items.

Simmer until very tender.

Reserve all of the liquid and celery/parsley/meat mixture.

Chop up the remainder of the celery as well as the two onions.

Sauté the onions and celery in a stick of butter until tender and transparent.

In a large bowl or stock pot, break up cornbread into bite size chunks.

No. It’s not “pie” day, although I think I may bake a pie in honor of it.

It’s *Pi* Day.

You know … that pesky math thingy.

﻿﻿

I hate math. I truly do.

I like to write though … and I like PIE … and I like unique days, times, anomalies, and thought puzzles (but not puzzle pieces … they annoy me … I don’t have the time or the patience for them).

Anyway … I digress (as usual).

Today at 9:26:53 a.m. (when this posts to my blog … or at least as close as the blog server would let me get) … it’ll be a once in a century … and for most people … once in a lifetime … occurrence. Today is March 14, 2015 … or … 3.14.15.

Hey … you don’t have to be a math wiz to enjoy a good celebration (although at that precise time, I’ll be at a nice relaxing hair appointment, probably getting a scalp massage about then … hey … we all celebrate in our own way).

It’s been a long week … and it’s Valentine’s Day, which in and of itself is a dumb day … and I have to work not only tomorrow (Saturday) but also Sunday. So … since this is Friday and Valentine’s Day … here is my plan … because this is what will happen when I get home tonight … no matter what time I get there.

Carry on, all … and have a great Valentine’s Day, if that’s what you do.

I’ll light the fire. You put the flowers in the vase (pronounced “vahz” of course) that you bought today. Staring at the fire for hours and hours while I listen to you play your love songs all night long for me, only for me! Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is good. Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated by the sunshine through them, fiery gems for you, only for you. Our house is a very, very fine house with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard. Now everything is easy cause of you and our house is a very, very fine house with two cats in the yard. Life used to be so hard! Now everything is easy ’cause of you. I’ll light the fire. You put the flowers in the vase that you bought today.

*~*~*

It’s been a good year. It was a great Thanksgiving with new family members along with my husband and children and son-in-law-to-be and neighbors. Food was great on Thanksgiving and we had a marvelous day. Today was terrific for Roy and me also – relaxing and easy. We watched the dog play in her pen. We watched our 2 kitties playing in the yard. We lit a fire in our outdoor firepit. We drank a beer and made s’mores by the firepit. I made turkey stock from the turkey carcass. I made dried fruit bread for the holidays. I froze more of our Thanksgiving leftovers. Roy put away our outdoor furniture and cleaned up our acreage.

*~*~*

“Our House”

You light the fire. I’ll put the flowers in the vase (pronounced “vahz” of course) that I got today. (I’ll put maybe soup in the ‘vahz’ instead.) Staring at the fire for hours and hours while I listen to you play your love songs all night long for me, only for me! Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is good. Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated by the sunshine through them, fiery gems for you, only for you. Our house is a very, very fine house with two cats and one doggy in the yard. Life used to be so hard! Now everything is easy ’cause of you, and our house is a very, very fine house with two cats and one doggy in the yard. Life used to be so hard! Now everything is easy ’cause of you. You light the fire. I’ll put the soup in the ‘vahz’ that I got today.

*~*~*

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*~*~*

Life used to be hard. We moved to a better life. We are moving forward!

There aren’t a lot of Thanksgiving songs out there, you know. This is an absolute classic, however, and Roy & I have made it a “family tradition” to play it every Thanksgiving. It just wouldn’t be the same without a little bit of Arlo Guthrie.

ALICE’S RESTAURANT

Arlo Guthrie

This song is called Alice’s Restaurant, and it’s about Alice, and the

Restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,

That’s just the name of the song, and that’s why I called the song Alice’s Restaurant.

You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant

You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant

Walk right in it’s around the back

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant

Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on – two years ago on

Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the

Restaurant, but Alice doesn’t live in the restaurant, she lives in the

Church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and

Fasha the dog. And livin’ in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of

Room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin’ all that room,

Seein’ as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn’t

Have to take out their garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it’d be

A friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So

We took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW

Microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed

On toward the city dump.

Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the

Dump saying, “Closed on Thanksgiving.” And we had never heard of a dump

Closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off

Into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

We didn’t find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the

Side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the

Cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile

Is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we

Decided to throw our’s down.

That’s what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving

Dinner that couldn’t be beat, went to sleep and didn’t get up until the

Next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, “Kid,

We found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of

Garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it.” And

I said, “Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope

Under that garbage.”

After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we

Finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down

And pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the

Police officer’s station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the

Shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the

Police officer’s station.

Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at

The police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for

Being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn’t very likely, and

We didn’t expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out

And told us never to be seen driving garbage around the vicinity again,

Which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer’s station

There was a third possibility that we hadn’t even counted upon, and we was

Both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said “Obie, I don’t think I

Can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on.” He said, “Shut up, kid.

Get in the back of the patrol car.”

And that’s what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the

Quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of

Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here, they got three stop

Signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the

Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars,

Being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to

Get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of

Cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer’s station.

“What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?´ Erma Bombeck

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite fall/winter holiday, with the 4th of July being my favorite summer holiday. Thanksgiving though … geez … what better holiday can there be than to sit around all day and eat, having no one to say, “Ooooo, that’s bad for you, don’t eat that you might gain weight”!!! Everyone on that day is saying, “EAT! EAT! Try some of everything! Have more … already had a 2nd helping? So what … have a 3rd helping … and a 4th … you need to try everything.”

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.” Jim Davis

Especially with life as tenuous as it is … and with the socio-economic and political systems in the chaos that they are (which I won’t go into currently at least as that’s not the point of my post here) … it’s such a relief to be able to be thankful for what we have. Even if it’s something little, being thankful for what we *do* have is a true gift in and of itself. If for no other reason than this, we should all be thankful just for being alive and with our families … or … for being alive and away from our families if that’s a better fit!

🙂

“Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year … and then discover once a year is way too often.” Johnny Carson

With that, however, Roy and I are thrilled to spend Thanksgiving Day this year at our home with our son, Logan; our daughter, Kara; our future son-in-law, Alex; and Alex’s parents, Karen and Mark, & his youngest sister, Alivia (as 3 of our newest family members). We’ll miss seeing Alex’s brother, Marcus; Alex’s other sister, Kelsey, Kelsey’s husband, Ryan; and all of our other family members that can’t be there, but we look forward to seeing most of them over Christmas as well as at the wedding of Kara and Alex next July!